Our time with our wonderful friends in Siem Reap passed way too quickly. (And the time since then has passed way too quickly!) We had such a blast just being with them. Mike had his guy time and I my girl time. Mike started snorting when he laughed! He's never done that before! And hasn't done it since. He says it's because I dont make him laugh like Stevee does!:) It's true, I'm not very funny. Lyg and I did P90X! She's so great keeping on track with it! I stopped as soon as we separated! And I didn't even do all the days while we were there! Mike would never do that with me.
It was interesting how both our trip and Steve and Lygia's trip coincided. We'd both been talking about leaving home for awhile and when it finally came down to details we discovered we were leaving for the same amount of time...at the same time! They left home a week after we did back in November. When we found that we had some time to kill and going to see them was a possibility I was so thrilled!! And being there was just as amazing as I thought it'd be! I cried when we left! I only cried when saying goodbye to my mom when we left home.
Anyway, Steve and Lygia have been living in Cambodia for 8 months now. They helped start a safe house in Siem Reap for trafficked girls. Rahab's House. It started when they came in November. It's fully operational and completely filled up now! Its wonderful! The girls they rescue work in brothels disguised as karaoke clubs. At Rahab's House they teach english daily to both people from the community and the girls. I think there are 5 classes a day! They also started a salon. Some of the girls that are living in the house work at the salon. They use the salon to reach out to more girls. The karaoke girls get their hair/makeup/nails done very often before they go to work. So the salon offers cheap services and "American products" to get them in. They'll get to know them this way and tell them of a better life. Let them know they have options and a way out if they want it. Alot of the girls don't know of a way out. There aren't too many options for work so if they were to leave the karaoke clubs it would be extremely difficult to live. Rahab's House provides housing, food, and an allowance for personal things. It's a very sad thing. Being there was heartbreaking! We went to the clubs a few times to hand out flyers and things...that was very difficult for me to see! I'm doing a horrible job explaining this and it deserves the best of explanations. If you're interested I suggest you visit agapewebsite.org. Steve and Lygia also created a short video where you can get a more accurate idea of what really happens there.
Our stay there was not just spent hanging out with our friends. One of the main reasons we decided to go to Cambodia in the first place was because we'd be kept busy. They mostly needed Mike's handyman capabilities but I was right there helping with what I could too. The first week Mike and Steve made planter boxes and planted trees and bushes. Then Mike and I painted quite a bit. The biggest project was adding 2 rooms to the house. To house more girls. They had the space but it was a weird layout. So Mike put up two walls creating 2 new rooms! I learned alot about construction those 2 weeks. My job consisted of holding things and handing him things and sweeping. There is A LOT of sweeping required on a construction site! I'd bring him cold drinks. I did a lot of sanding and painting of these walls too. It was mostly Mike working though!:)
We did alot of going out in Siem Reap; out to dinner a few times a week, night swims, night market, walking around pub street. (which isn't only pubs) We got a fish foot massage! Where you soak your feet in a tank with a ton of little fish that nibble on your feet! They eat your dead skin. It was weird! Mike was a champ, no one else could handle it. Mike didn't lift his feet out of the water at all! I couldn't keep mine in for more than about 2 nibbles. It crazy tickled! And if the fish got you right it kinda hurt at times too.
Our last 3 days in Siem Reap we went templing! There are so many ancient temples! They were very unique. The pictures speak for themselves.
We also got to hang out with Jimmy and Andrey for about 3 days. More fun for mike than for me but still fun! The boys flew in on a Thursday night and on Saturday morning we all left for Thailand again!! Mike and I to fly out of Bangkok and the rest to hang out! It happened to be my birthday weekend so I was super excited to learn that it would be a group trip! We had so much fun. It's great to be with friends! We realized how much we miss our friends when we got to hang out with them for a little while. We miss them way more than we did to begin with.
This time in Bangkok we explored the shopping district. The modern area opposed to a month prior when we mostly saw the historic things. I haven't looked this up or anything but I can pretty confidently say that Bangkok has more malls than any other city in the world! It was like a strip mall of huge malls! And a block over...another strip mall of malls! It was insane. We hung out there quite a bit. We went to a rooftop lounge for my birthday! It was the most amazing view! It was on top of the hotel where the movie hangover 2 was filmed. This was the best view we had of any city! It was a 64 story building I believe.
Steve, Lygia and the boys left a day before us. So we had a little time alone where we wandered around the shopping district some more and hung out at a local park and rode a paddle boat. We saw a Komodo Dragon!!! It was so scary! It looked about 6 ft long! We thought it was a crocodile! It was just hanging out in a public park. There were a ton of people everywhere and we were the only ones freaking out about the thing!
It was definitely a birthday to remember. It was perfect; time with friends, time with mike, beautiful city, shopping.
-Komodo dragon
We flew into Budapest on June 6th. Our Romanian mini bus driver was waiting for us with a sign with our names. Because we're so important. It wasn't the first time.:) We had to go back to Romania to get our car and all our junk before we settled in Budapest. We spent about 2 days or so there with family. Telling them about our trip and showing them pictures. We brought them a bunch of fruit and candy from Thailand. They found the fruit interesting just like we did. Mango-steins and dragon fruit and lychee.
Beginning June 25th through July 15th we were busy busy busy! Three camps back to back with no breaks in between was tough! Kids are draining. We were in Debrecen working with Goodsports International for the first week. The following two were in Budapest with the little church.
